“When Devaki saw her brother so repentant, she also became pacified and forgot all his atrocious activities against her children. Vasudeva also, forgetting all past incidents, spoke smilingly with his brother-in-law.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 1, Ch 4)

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1. Road rage

“Did you see the video of that person crashing their car? It was so great. They had been harassing this other driver on the road. It was your classic case of road rage. These people are so dangerous. I am glad they got what they deserved. I cannot watch that video enough.

2. Student expelled

“Did you hear the news? That kid got expelled from school. Yes, I am happy about it. Aren’t you? Why do you feel bad? They were a constant nuisance. They caused so much trouble in class. Stop feeling bad for them. This is what they get for bullying people. I hope they end up scarred for life because of this.”

3. Heartbreaking loss

“Did you see the game last night? Yup, that guy lost. I am so happy. I know my favorite team wasn’t involved in the series, but I am almost happier than if my favorite team had won. This player left for the money. He is so greedy. That greed should never be rewarded. Now he lost in the most heartbreaking way. I love it.”

4. The breakup

“That guy had it coming. He abandoned his first wife in the worst possible way. He was so selfish. Why go through with such an expensive wedding if you never intended to honor the vows? I felt so horrible for his wife at the time. I just learned that he got dumped, by the new girl he was with. I feel great. Payback is a you know what.”

5. Tragedy for religious followers

“I shouldn’t be happy, but I can’t help it. These people are so self-righteous. They are always looking down at us. They say that we are the sinners. We are the fallen ones. Unless we follow their religion, we are doomed for eternity. I don’t know about the afterlife, but see what these people got as a reward for their faith. They went to that supposedly sacred place and got caught in a natural calamity. Where was their god to save them? He must not exist, if you ask me. The irony runs deep.”

…

The Vedic tradition describes the concept of God in both the personal and impersonal ways. The impersonal way is something like knowing the sun only by the sunshine. We are on the precipice of the spring season in my part of the world. This means that for about a month straight there will be steady cloud cover. It is not necessarily cold, but for some reason it feels colder than the recent fag end of the winter season. This is because the ground is always wet. There is a little bit of rainfall every single day.

In a few weeks, the trees will start to bloom. The ground will be dry. There will be a completely different view when looking out the bedroom window. The lighting will be much better. This is due to the perpetual sunshine. If my knowledge stopped at this point, I would have an impersonal understanding of the sun. I would know only its effect, its impact, its extension that are the rays.

The personal understanding is realizing that the sunshine is due to the sun. In this way, Vedic knowledge provides distinct perspectives on Divinity. Even what the world commonly refers to as “atheism” is merely a perspective. It is understanding only the shadow created by the sun, if keeping with our example. Everyone is connected to Divinity, at all times, irrespective of their level of understanding.

ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते
तांस् तथैव भजाम्य् अहम्
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते
मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
mama vartmānuvartante
manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ

“All of them – as they surrender unto Me – I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pritha.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.11)

The impersonal side is an incomplete understanding, and so the person that is the source of the impersonal and personal volunteers for excursions, so to speak, in a way to enhance the understanding. It is like the CEO of the large corporation entering the field. They are with the other employees, but the difference is the CEO is never at risk of failure, of reprimand, of losing their job. God appears within the manifest realm at times of His choosing, aligning with the general parameters that He creates.

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य
ग्लानिर् भवति भारत
अभ्युत्थानम् अधर्मस्य
तदात्मानं सृजाम्य् अहम्

yadā yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya
tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion – at that time I descend Myself.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.7)

These appearances have identifiable forms, and those forms are referred to as avataras. Understandably so, the history pertaining to these avataras focuses on the movements and characteristics, charitra, of the lead character. The protagonist to the story, the hero to deliver the innocent from peril. As Shri Krishna, the Almighty spends considerable time during childhood fighting off evil forces. The work begins right from the time of the appearance, which is known as janma. That janma and corresponding karma, or work, are divine in nature, divyam.

जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यम्
एवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः
त्यक्त्वा देहं पुनर् जन्म
नैति माम् एति सो ऽर्जुन

janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ‘rjuna

“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.9)

When there is a hero, there is a villain. When there is victory, there is defeat. The victories of the avatara fill the pages of sacred texts such as Bhagavata Purana and Ramayana. The question may be asked as to why more time is not dedicated to celebrating the defeat of the villains. After all, they usually do horrible things. They harass saintly people. They attempt to strike religion and religious practice out from the world. In the manner that poisonous injections today are forced upon innocent children in the name of science, containing ingredients like human fetal cells and the blood of dead animals, so the villains might throw blood and other impure ingredients upon sacrificial fires of the sages. They attempt to disrupt yajna, which is the life of the saintly person in their daily work.

In the case of the avatara named Krishna, the villain in the childhood years is named Kamsa. He is the king of Mathura. Kamsa has the notable distinction of paranoia so intense that he feels compelled to throw newborn children against a stone slab. This is to avoid any possibility of the warning told many years before from materializing. A voice from the sky previously warned Kamsa that the eighth child of his sister Devaki would be his end. Kamsa wanted to kill Devaki on the spot, but Devaki’s newly wedded partner, Vasudeva, was able to prevent the tragedy through words of pacification. Vasudeva was not able to avoid prison time, however. He could not prevent Kamsa from murdering the couple’s children, one by one, as they appeared in this world.

The voice in the sky had been telling the truth. That eighth child was actually Vishnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The eighth child instructed the father to make a journey to the neighboring town of Gokula. Vishnu as the baby Krishna would live there initially. Krishna later returned to Mathura and killed Kamsa.

We see from Bhagavata Purana that the parents never held a grudge. Kamsa for a period of time was repentant over the atrocities he had committed. Vasudeva and Devaki accepted the contrition without question. They did not harbor resentment. We find no mention of extended celebration when Kamsa was later killed directly by Krishna, by a single punch from the person who is the most powerful.

It may be asked why saintly people tend to avoid what is known as schadenfreude. This is the pleasure derived from someone else’s misfortune. The only rational explanation is rational thought itself. To desperately hope for bad things to happen to someone, in a fixed concentration, is something like worship. It is worship in the negative sense. Hate is on the other side of love. It is like flipping the hourglass or seeing the coin land on the opposite side.

As we see from the examples described above, sometimes the worship works. The bad things happen. The person experiences schadenfreude to their heart’s desire. That is well and good, but what happens next? Say that the object of hatred leaves this world. To where will the hate now turn? In one sense, the person full of hate should be thankful they had such a person around, to serve as their object of worship, even if it was in the negative direction.

It is said that a saintly person celebrates the death of a snake, but this is only in terms of the release of future negative consequences. The fall into evil tendencies is itself the tragedy. Nothing can erase the negative impact. It is sad that it ever came to the point of Kamsa killing innocent children. Once he is gone, it is a great relief to the saintly population of the world, but the memory of the tragedy is still there.

Moreover, would we like it if someone else so desperately wished ill upon us? Is that a good way to go through life? This begins to explain the focus on the positive, in how Krishna appeared in this world for the pleasure of His devotees. That pleasure is so great, up to the limit of the sky and beyond, that someone like Kamsa might even be appreciated. At least his wickedness was strong enough to trigger the appearance of Vishnu in this world.

In Closing:

Kamsa of behavior cruel and bad,
But at his demise feeling sad.

Because why to that point came?
To bring dishonor and shame.

But still appreciating him so,
Because of his influence to know.

That Vishnu from Vaikuntha to bring,
And forever His glories to sing.

Categories: the five

Tags: dailyprompt, life, poem, poems, poetry, schadenfreude